Finding God in the Questions

Dr. Timothy Johnson, medical editor of ABC-TV and host of Good Morning America's "On Call with Dr. Tim Johnson," started out to be a Protestant minister. But two years out of divinity school, he changed direction and entered medical school at age 29-drawn by his experience as a hospital chaplain and by a scientific turn of mind that caused him to question everything, including his faith. Over the years, Johnson has continued to explore the "big questions" of religion. He remains a believer and says he has become "comfortable with intellectual and spiritual doubt-it stimulates me to think about what I really believe." Johnson spoke with Beliefnet about his new book, "Finding God in the Questions."

You've been a medical journalist on TV for thirty years. Did you have to conceal from colleagues that you were a Christian?

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No, I have never had to hide it, or tried to hide it at all. In fact, most of my colleagues in both medicine and media know that I am an ordained minister. That's why they come to me for spiritual discussions, and I have performed many weddings for good friends in both worlds over the years. It's even came up on TV occasionally just in certain natural ways. I don't go around broadcasting it since that's not the position I hold at ABC.

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Maybe I'll also say right up front that I don't often label myself as a Christian. That word bothers me because it's so imprecise-it covers such a territory of both good and bad. So more and more I say I am a "follower of Jesus." In fact, if there is one message I would like people to take away from the book, it is that you don't have to be a Christian to be a follower of Jesus. That is, you don't have to subscribe to all the intellectual, creedal developments of the Christian church and certainly don't have to support so many of its terrible choices over the years.

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What denomination are you connected with?

I am a member of the Evangelical Covenant Church, which is a relatively small group that started in Sweden in the 19th century when the Pietistic movement swept through Europe and got transplanted to this country in the immigrations in the later part of that century. Its headquarters are in Chicago. It's the church I happened to be born into and I'm still a part of. I would describe it as a mainline Protestant church quite similar to the Lutheran Church.